Aeris
by AlphaNinn
Summary: A look at Aeris. In the past and in the present.


Aeris   
By: Ninn   
___________________________________________________________________________ 

They came looking for me. I didn't know what to do, but I was told to go and hide, so I   
did. All I could hear from my bedroom was shouting, and occasionaly I knew they were referring   
to me. 

I could tell they were getting mad, their shouts were getting louder and suddenly one of   
them fired a gun into the ceiling, which happened to be the part that was also the floor to my   
room. Then all was silent. 

I crept to the top of the stairs and they were gone. But my mother was sitting at the table   
crying. I went down to see if I could help, but she said no, and that she was thankful that they   
hadn't gone upstaris, or else they would have taken me with them. I wanted to know why, but she   
wouldn't tell, and when I tried to push her she just became silent. I told her I was sorry, but she   
said nothing. 

I wanted to hurt those men. 

Then she smiled at me and pulled me onto her lap. We sat there for a long time, and I   
must've dozed off, because when I woke again, I was in my bedroom, and there was light   
streaming in the window. 

When I went back downstairs my mom was going through the daily chores, acting as if   
nothing had happened, so I preteneded too. 

She saw me and put down the dish she was drying. 

I told her I was going outside to play in the flowers, she didn't say no, but the look of   
worry on her face was so intense it scared me. I looked away and retreated to the small garden   
in the yard. 

It was fenced in and contained an amazing amout of flowers. Well, maybe it wasn't so   
amazing, but flowers didn't grow here. They never had. 

I was watering them when I heard voices. Then I saw those men again. 

Why wouldn't they leave us alone? 

I knew my mom wouldn't want me in danger, so as quietly as possible I slipped to one of   
the areas where the flowers were thick and tall, and being small for my age was able to easily   
hide myself from view underneath them. 

I stayed there for what seemed like forever, not daring to move. From where I was laying,   
I could hear voices inside the house, and from my mother's frantic protests, it was obvious they   
were going upstairs. That was a perk to living in the slums, I had no toys, and my room wasn't   
messy. It looked almost like a grown-up's room. 

Apparantly they didn't find anything, because they soon left. They were coming more   
often, it would only be a matter of time before they found me. When I was sure they were gone, I   
went back into the house. 

My mother grabbed me and held me close, I made no move to break away. Again she   
wouldn't tell me what was going on, but she could only protect me so far. I would have to know   
the truth sooner or later, and I didn't want to learn it from someone else. 

I pleaded that day, the men were coming more and more often. I wanted to know what   
was so special about me. 

She finally gave in and told me. The first thing she said was that I wasn't her real   
daughter. She said she found me at a train station one day, and that my real mother had died   
that day. 

I stared up at her and mumbled something about her being my real mother, not this lady I   
never knew. Actually that was sort of a lie, but how much could distant memories really count?   
Besides, I wanted my mom to be happy. 

And it did seem to make her happy, but the smile only lasted a second, then she pulled   
me onto her lap. What she told me next, I didn't understand.She said I was something called an   
Ancient, and that they wanted me to find something called the Promised Land. 

I asked her why I was so special, why another Ancient couldn't the job, but she said was   
the last of them. I was suprized, how could I possibly be the last one? 

She said she didn't know, that fate could play mean tricks sometimes. I knew that was   
true, but at least now I knew why I wasn't like all of the other people my age. They always   
stayed away from me. 

I pulled myself off of her lap and went back outside to think. My mother didn't stop me,   
she knew I was confused and wanted to figure things out. And to think, I was only eight at the   
time. 

Shaking my head I brought myself out of the past. 

Shaking my head I brought myself out of the past. I had never found the Promised Land,   
although the City of the Anctients was found. It was a magnficient place, I had never seen   
anything quite like it. I felt like I belonged there. 

I knew that night that I DID belong there, for matters I didn't really know of at the time. I   
had snuck away from the group and left Bone Village, entering the woods that we had passed   
through earlier that day. 

I couldn't tell anyone, they wouldn''t understand. This was my fate, I knew this now, and I   
was going to become one with the planet wheather I liked it or not. But I knew my death was   
insignificant, if it meant a chance to save the world, and my friends. 

Soon, I was at the entrance to the city. What I was looking wasn't in the surface city. It   
was in the underground one, and somehow I knew how to get there. Without looking for long, I   
found the top of the crystalline staircase. 

There were no sides to it, and while I did have a fear of heights, I felt no fear. There was   
an invisible force all around me, and it would protect me. 

Reaching up to my hair I began playing absently with the single piece of Materia that   
was tied in the band. I knew that it was finally going to get an use. 

The stairs were long and twisting, and I wasn't paying any attention to them. My mind   
was elsewhere, in sort of a dream. 

I was thinking about the group. They had all been so nice to me, so understanding. It   
was so hard to just leave, and without telling anyone. But I knew this was the only way. They   
would try and make me stay. They wouldn't understand the mission, and I couldn't explain. How   
was I to say that it just felt right? 

Seeing that I had reached bottom, I looked around, searching for the spot. I saw it in the   
distance. It was a raised alter, with a series of stepping stones being the only access. 

I managed to cross them, and it somehow reminded me of jumping across roofs in the   
slums of Midgar. 

Wiping a stray tear from my eye, I stood in the middle of the alter. I had an excellent view   
of the surrounding city, and somehow I knew that I would soon join the rest of my kind. But the   
thought didn't sadden me, instead I was suprized to find acceptance. 

My mother had once told me that when you know your path, you can't listen to other   
people and you must follow it. 

Now I believed her. 

Closing my eyes I knelt and began to pray. I wasn't sure for what, but I knew it was right.   
I could feel the materia in my hair beginning to activate, and suddenly I knew what it did. 

I called forth with all of my mental ability, and then something caused me to open my   
eyes. Three of the group members were standing in front of me, and one of them seemed to be   
about to kill me, but then he stopped himself. 

I was about to say something, but I never got the chance. The next thing I felt was a   
sinister presence, and then the cold metal of a long thin sword pierce my body. The last thing I   
heard was laughter, tinged with satisfaction.........   
______________________________________________________________________________ 

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. It was one of those things that sort of came to me when I was sitting   
in front of my computer - when I was supposed to be studying for finals.   
This wasn't my best, but it came out better than I thought. 

Ninn - http://www3.50megs.com/ninn 


End file.
